Baseball Battery Ready to Make Diamond Impact This Spring

A new starting rotation will be atop the pitching mound as the No. 3-ranked Georgia Gwinnett College baseball team opens its season later this week – starting a spring-long trek that’s striving for another trip to the Avista NAIA World Series.

Only one starter returns from the players who threw the first pitches for the Grizzlies in four games during last year’s World Series.

“With new players making up 65% of this year’s team, there was an emphasis on re-establishing our program’s culture and standards when practice started last fall,” said Head Coach Jeremy Sheetinger, who enters his sixth season in the dugout. “Everyone has done a good job of bringing this group together and getting everybody on the same page for this new season.”

With the 2025 campaign scheduled to begin this Friday at the Grizzly Baseball Complex, GGCAthletics.com concludes its preseason position preview series by examining the pitchers and catchers making up a key battery component of this year’s team.

The lone returning starter from a year ago is a good one – 2025 NAIA Preseason All-American Ben Harris. The senior right hander posted an 11-1 record and 2.67 earned run average in 14 starts last spring. He also struck out 102 batters and tossed five complete games.

Harris has big-game experience during his previous two seasons for the Green and Gray. He went the distance in a triumph against Tennessee Wesleyan University in the 2024 World Series. Harris tossed the Grizzlies to the 2023 World Series with a complete-game performance in the championship game of the NAIA Opening Round Lawrenceville Bracket against Freed-Hardeman University (Tennessee).

Junior Austin Testerman enters this spring healthy after being limited to relief duties during the final weeks of the 2024 regular season and postseason play. The right hander is competing for a starting rotation spot.

Other returning pitchers include senior Tyler E. Martin, the team’s winning pitcher in the championship game of last year’s NAIA Opening Round Lawrenceville Bracket against Faulkner University (Alabama). The right hander also earned Continental Athletic Conference all-tournament team and had a 5-0, with a 2.10 ERA, in 13 appearances in 2024.

Classmate Jeremiah Locklear garnered first all-conference team honors out of the bullpen last season. The left hander posted three victories and 33 strikeouts across 24.2 innings in 17 appearances. He struck out 11 batters across 3.2 scoreless innings in relief against Saint Xavier University (Illinois).

Senior Wyatt Dodgens made 14 of his 15 appearances out of the bullpen last season, recording one save and striking out 23 batters in 18 innings. Fellow senior Hunter Polley also returns for his second season in the Green and Gray. The right-handed option started three of his nine mound appearances, posting two victories and holding opposing hitters to a .231 batting average. 

“We have some quality backend options to compliment the pitching staff. Having experienced guys like Tyler back for his senior year gives us confidence when closing out games. He was especially strong for us at the end of last year,” said Sheetinger.

The veteran coach added, “Jeremiah (Locklear) pitches with a lot of confidence while Wyatt (Dodgens) and Hunter (Polley) have each pitched a considerable number of innings for us. Overall, I like the depth of our pitching staff.”

Newcomers competing for innings in starting, middle relief and closing relief roles are seniors Cade Carlson, Clay Cox, Carson Judd, Brendan Moody, and Anthony Patterson III, juniors Shane Anderson, Jaxon Dennis, Jake Finkelstein, Andrew Johnson, Xavier Richards, Blair Rogers, and Coleman Willis. Freshmen on the staff include Roger Dreher and Sammy Schwark.

A talented catching duo, featuring senior Matthew Lee and junior Grant Pohlman, will be on-the-field managers for the pitching unit, lead the team’s defensive strategies and be productive bats in the lineup. 

Lee returns to Lawrenceville after hitting .333 with 30 hits and seven doubles while starting 29 of the 37 games last spring. 

Pohlman earned Region 24 Co-Player of the Year honors last spring at Lincoln Land Community College (Illinois).

Georgia Gwinnett College is scheduled to open the spring slate on Friday, January 31, with home games against Huntington University (Indiana) and Midway University (Kentucky), starting at 2 p.m.